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Ryan Clark thanks Steelers: ‘Greatest years of my life’

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) – As you know by now, Ryan Clark is now a former Steeler after eight sold seasons complimenting Troy Polamalu in the secondary.

Clark wanted to close the Steeler chapter of his, life but for last time, he wanted to go down memory lane and wanted to do it with Bob Pompeani at KDKA-TV.

Clark was one of the hardest hitters in the game and one particular hit against the Patriots sticks out in his mind.

“My favorite is [going to] be Wes Welker until I’m gone from this Earth. The Patriots had this mystique about them, they still do, honestly. Wes Welker had this mystique about him, about being a scrappy, tough and whatever adjectives people always like to add to him. We just didn’t like those guys, we just didn’t and it just felt so good, to hit him,” Clark said.

So, that was his favorite hit, how about his favorite moment aside from winning the Super Bowl?

“It would have to be when Troy intercepted that pass in 2008-09 AFC Championship Game and scoring basically the winning and sealing touchdown for us to go the Super Bowl. There’s no play I think about more than that,” he said.

The Steelers won that Super Bowl in Tampa on the last-second touchdown pass from Ben Roethlisberger to Santonio Holmes, to get their sixth Lombardi Trophy. They had a shot at a seventh in Dallas against the Packers, but fell short.

Clark maintains they would have won it, except for one player who got in the way.

“It’s not always just you. I felt like there were some years we didn’t play as well as we should have. There were also years where some other teams were just really good. When we played Aaron Rodgers that night in Dallas, 31 other quarterbacks we played against, I don’t care if it was Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Drew Brees, we beat ‘em. Period. I am 100 percent sure of it. You put any other quarterback quarterbacking Green Bay that night, we beat ‘em. He was just better than we were that day,” Clark said.

Clark’s days in Pittsburgh came to an end when the Steelers traded for Mike Mitchell to essentially take his spot.

That signified the end of eight years in a city Clark has come to love. That was fully apparent, when Pompeani gave him the opportunity to say goodbye one last time.

“Was the greatest years of my life as far as sports go, to be around such good people. People that embraced me and treated me the way they did .Man, it was just beautiful. I just thank them, I thank them all. The Rooney family, I’m just so appreciative they took a guy that nobody really wanted and they gave me a shot. To the fans, just amazing to go to places and like, take over stadiums. To be in San Diego where Terrible Towels overwhelmed anything they had. The Steelers are spoiled by the fans they have, it’s just awesome. But, I think the most important things are just my friends, Ike, Troy, Will Gay – like brothers. I think that’s just hardest part of this game. I don’t want people here (Washington) to think I’m not excited about it, became I am, I really mean it. But, when I was sick, they came to the hospital, Troy cried with me. But, that’s the things I’ll miss, that’s the things I’ll remember. I’m just grateful to God that he let me be there (Pittsburgh).

Clark closed out the interview with this:

“I leave with knowing you guys are amazing fans in an amazing city and one of the best organizations in sports and I’m just grateful. A little kid from Louisiana, that no one wanted to draft, got to come in and be a part of something so great.”

With that, Ryan Clark closes his eight-year book with the Pittsburgh Steelers.

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At the NFL meetings in Atlanta this week, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said that he was holding off on any discipline for Colts owner Jim Irsay “until we have more information and more facts.”

Irsay was arrested on charges of vehicle while intoxicated and felony possession of a controlled substance earlier this year and spent some time in rehab before returning to work this week to play a role in Indianapolis’ unsuccessful bid for Super Bowl LII. In his frequent offseason role as an ESPN talking head, Redskins safety Ryan Clark criticized Goodell and the league for not acting to discipline Irsay already.

Clark pointed to Goodell’s decision to suspend Clark’s former Steelers teammate Ben Roethlisberger in 2010 when Roethlisberger was neither charged with a crime nor arrested after being accused of sexual assault. Clark said allowing Irsay to be part of this week’s meetings “shows the hypocrisy of the NFL and also Roger Goodell in the way that he deals with players and the way he deals for the people he works for.”

“So when has having enough information been what Roger Goodell waits for to make these decisions?” Clark said on “First Take.” “When does a charge necessarily warrant the penalty? We’ve seen in so many cases, Roger Goodell be judge and jury when it comes to players,” Clark said. “So here we have Jim Irsay, a guy, an owner, who has history of substance abuse, who’s found in a car with over $29K and prescription drugs that weren’t in his name, pulled over for driving under the influence, and now we’re saying we need more information? What more information do we need than these aren’t your prescription pills? You’re obviously under the influence. You have $29k. There would be no questions asked if this was a player.”

The longer the league takes to deal with the Irsay situation, the more people are likely to come around to Clark’s view that there’s a different standard for owners even though the league has said Irsay is eligible for discipline.

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Join Date

May 2008

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4,275

Not true Ryan. The league has not yet acted on Ray Rice, and he was shown on video dragging his girlfriend (now wife) by the hair. He has now entered into some program in lieu of getting the book thrown at him. What more evidence does he need than that?

Goodell is easy to figure out. The louder the story, the harsher the penalty. The Irsay story went away from the media noise machine. Rice is barely even mentioned anymore. Ben was a page 1 story in the mainstream media. Therefore it was dealt with harshly.

The NBA is no different. Donald Sterling's racism was public record for years. He was convicted in a court of law, and settled out of court on several other occasions. Before a month or so ago, nobody said a word about a racist owner. Suddenly, TMZ has a recording of a private conversation, and the league feels the need to ban him for life, and fine him $2.5M. Now I ask you, what is the difference between Sterling the racist for many years, and Sterling the racist who had his private conversation exposed? Answer...media noise.